Welcome!

Welcome to November 2018's CRPhotography newsletter, a round-up of photography goodness on DA from the last month. The newsletter is divided into handy sections to help you browse photography news and features from the last month. The links with a Fella icon are official CRPhotography articles and the newsletter is illustrated with beautiful pictures featured as Daily Deviations by our photography Community Volunteers over the last month.

Welcome!

In case you missed any of the beautiful Daily Deviations featured by Mrs-Durden and me in October, here they are!

Many thanks to everyone who suggested photos last month. Our guidelines for suggesting Daily Deviations are linked at the bottom of this article to help you with suggesting. We tend to get a lot more People & Portraits suggestions than anything else, so great pictures from other galleries are extra appreciated! Self-suggestions are always welcome too, if you have a piece of your own that you think we should see.

Welcome!

Welcome to October 2018's CRPhotography newsletter, a round-up of photography goodness on DA from the last month. The newsletter is divided into handy sections to help you browse photography news and features from the last month. The links with a Fella icon are official CRPhotography articles and the newsletter is illustrated with beautiful pictures featured as Daily Deviations by our photography Community Volunteers over the last month.

Contests, Challenges and Projects

Mrs-Durden and TanyaSimpson are hosting a horror photography contest with a twist. Even (especially) if you're completely new to horror photography, or photography in general, check out The Last Photograph

Mrs-Durden and I would like to invite you to take part in a horror photography contest with a difference - the goal isn't to take the 'best' photo. The goal is to totally creep us out!

Instead of giving you a theme or a topic, we're giving you a story. The end of the story is the photo you take and submit to the contest.

We encourage you to dig around in the darkest depths of your imagination. If you're awesome at costume creating, monster making and effects make-up, that's great. If you're a super experienced horror photographer, that's great too. BUT...if you're none of those things, that's also great and you have just as much chance of winning!

Also, don't worry if you don't have a fancy camera, because shooting your contest entry on your phone will add to the authenticity of your photo and may work in your favour!

So, without further ado, here's how to take part.

[ the story ]

You're out for a walk on your own and you notice a mobile phone lying at the side of the path. The low battery light is flashing but it still has charge, so it must have been dropped recently. As you pick it up, the screen flickers to life and you see the last photo that was taken with it...the photo is your entry to the contest.

[ the rules ]

The contest begins at 00.01 PST on 15th October 2018 and ends at 23.59 PST on 10th November 2018.

Your entry MUST be created - that means shot, submitted to DA and entered into the contest - during that time.

Your entry should be submitted to the appropriate photography gallery on DeviantArt, whether that's Photography > Horror & Macabre or something else. Please bear in mind this is a photography contest, so any submissions that do not belong in the photography galleries will be disqualified.

Your entry should state in the description that it was created for The Last Photograph contest, with a link to this journal.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment on this journal with a link or thumbnail for your entry (you can find out how to link to deviations here)

Only one entry per person, please!

[ the prizes ]

1st place

6 months Core membership or equivalent Points

2nd place

3 months Core membership or equivalent Points

3rd place

1 month Core membership or equivalent Points

Participation

YES! There is a prize for taking part in this contest! Providing ALL RULES ARE FOLLOWED, including creating an entry which clearly adheres to the contest's story, each participant will get 100 Points. There is a limit of one entry per person and anyone found to be cheating by using alt accounts will be disqualified, so please be honest.

[ inspiration ]

I realised the other day that my 900,000th pageview will be happening soon, some time in the next week or so, barring any bizarre spikes or troughs.

If you happen to land on my page and see my pageview counter hit 900,000, take a screenshot, post it in a comment here on this journal and I'll send you however many Points are in my account at the time. It's currently only 291, so don't get too excited. But if you're collecting for something, that might be a nice little boost

If you win the Points but would rather donate them to someone else (maybe an admin for a group you're in is collecting for Super Group status, or someone you know is saving up for Core?), note me after you post your screengrab.

If more than one person catches 900k, I'll split the Points. I don't expect this but I think it's technically possible, if unlikely. Don't start digitally altering numbers on image files. That's a dick move and goats will pull your lungs out if you do it.

Fella is DA's mascot and has been the host of his own group for a long time. The group has been through a number of incarnations under the loving and watchful eye of various admins over the years, but had been on hiatus for quite a while. I'm excited to announce that fella is now back in action, reinvented, and ready to help new deviants find their creative community.

There are already lots of wonderful groups and projects on DA that facilitate sharing your art through their galleries and collections, provide educational and informative content, and host and promote community events. To avoid reinventing the wheel or overlapping with awesome things that already exist, fella's new incarnation is as a welcoming resource, aiming to direct new DA members to helpful and fun places and things around the site.

If you'd like to include fella in your welcome messages to new deviants, you can link to the journal below, or just to the group's front page.

Welcome!

In case you missed any of the beautiful Daily Deviations featured by Mrs-Durden and me in September, here they are!

Many thanks to everyone who suggested photos last month. Our guidelines for suggesting Daily Deviations are linked at the bottom of this article to help you with suggesting. We tend to get a lot more People & Portraits suggestions than anything else, so great pictures from other galleries are extra appreciated! Self-suggestions are always welcome too, if you have a piece of your own that you think we should see.

Welcome!

Welcome to September 2018's CRPhotography newsletter, a round-up of photography goodness on DA from the last month. The newsletter is divided into handy sections to help you browse photography news and features from the last month. The links with a Fella icon are official CRPhotography articles and the newsletter is illustrated with beautiful pictures featured as Daily Deviations by our photography Community Volunteers over the last month.

Whether you have a question, issue or concern, please do not hesitate to note us! We would love to assist you in any way we can.

We are always looking for suggestions on improvement within CRPhotography and as your Photography Community Team too. Contact us for anything about the Photography Community on DeviantArt that you would like us to know, and support us by donating here!

Welcome!

This month the general photography CVs - Mrs-Durden and myself - set a total of 27 DDs across the categories we look after! Many thanks to everyone who's suggested to us, and as always we welcome your suggestions so don't be shy. Our guidelines for suggesting Daily Deviations are linked at the bottom of this article to help you with suggesting. We tend to get a lot more People and Portraits suggestions than anything else so bonus points if you send us great pieces from the 'weird' galleries. Self-suggestions are always welcome too if you have a piece of your own that you think we should see!

Introduction

While technical critique is all kinds of awesome when it's wanted, it is absolutely, definitely NOT the only kind of feedback that's valid or that an artist will appreciate! If you're nervous about leaving comments on people's art because you're worried your feedback won't be in-depth enough or technical enough, please don't feel that way. There are ways to respond to an artist's work that have nothing at all to do with technical critique, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

Before we get into the main body of the article, I'd like to make one thing really clear. It's very important and it underpins everything else in the article. Ready?

Not everyone wants critique and this is a perfectly valid choice. There are a million and one possible reasons why someone may not be seeking critique on some or all of the work they upload to DA. Even if you don't know their reasons, even if they haven't stated them, even if they have stated them and you don't agree with them, they are still valid and we should respect each other's wishes. I'd go as far as to suggest that detailed technical critique should really only be left on pieces of art that either have the Critique option enabled or where the artist has clearly stated in the description (or made it super clear on their profile page) that they're looking for critique and/or technical suggestions.

So, you've found some art you enjoy and you'd like to leave a comment that isn't technical critique, but you're stuck. Don't worry. Here's an approach that will work for almost anyone!

Focusing on what you can talk about

For example, what did you like best about the piece of art? What immediately captured your attention and inspired you to click on the thumbnail for a closer look? What interested, intrigued and fascinated you? What made you smile? If you're stuck with describing precisely why you adore something in deep and meaningful terms (we all have those days), you can almost always express that feeling in a simple way. This doesn't require any technical knowledge of the medium at all. You can know you love the shapes in a fractal or the colours in a hand-made dress without being able to explain the underlying theory that makes those particular shapes or colours beautiful to you. You can just appreciate them in your own way, then share that appreciation with the artist.

Crossing language barriers

If you're moved to comment on something and you don't share a language with the artist, check out online translation tools. Of course they won't always offer an opportunity for the most eloquent comments, but they'll help you to say something short, simple and to the point, like, "I love the colours" or "This picture is beautiful". If all you can manage is to leave a comment in your own language, do it anyway. Include an emote to show your general feeling. Just go for it. At worst, the artist will see a positive emote and know the comment was positive. At best, they'll translate it and reach something closer to the full meaning. Those are both pretty great outcomes!

Detailed commenting without technical critique

If you want to go more in-depth with your comments but for whatever reason aren't equipped to get technical, you can still do that and it will still be appreciated. One of the most incredible things about art is how it sparks emotions and reminds us of experiences we've had. Perhaps you can't explain exactly why the composition of that picture is great, but you can explain why it reminds you of a holiday you took with your family when you were five or gets you excited for winter, for example. Put yourself in the other person's shoes. How would you feel to know you'd brought a treasured memory to the front of someone's mind or made them think about their favourite season?

Conclusion

There is a beautiful spectrum of joy and emotion in the world of comments between detailed technical critique and "nice pic". It's an amorphous, inspiration-filled place of experience and wonder. Never underestimate the value of simply telling someone why you enjoyed something they created. Use your words in whatever way you can. Be honest. Be real. Say something. Say anything. Connect. Isn't that what we're all here for?

Welcome!

Welcome to August 2018's CRPhotography newsletter, a round-up of photography goodness on DA from the last month. The newsletter is divided into handy sections to help you browse photography news and features from the last month. The links with a Fella icon are official CRPhotography articles and the newsletter is illustrated with beautiful pictures recently submitted to DA.

Whether you have a question, issue or concern, please do not hesitate to note us! We would love to assist you in any way we can.

We are always looking for suggestions on improvement within CRPhotography and as your Photography Community Team too. Contact us for anything about the Photography Community on DeviantArt that you would like us to know, and support us by donating here!

Welcome!

This month the general photography CVs - Mrs-Durden and myself - set a total of 32 DDs across the categories we look after! Many thanks to everyone who's suggested to us, and as always we welcome your suggestions so don't be shy. Our guidelines for suggesting Daily Deviations are linked at the bottom of this article to help you with suggesting. We tend to get a lot more People and Portraits suggestions than anything else so bonus points if you send us great pieces from the 'weird' galleries. Self-suggestions are always welcome too if you have a piece of your own that you think we should see!

To celebrate DeviantArt's 18th birthday, the Community Relations team is hosting a caption contest and inviting you to engage your sense of humour! It's time to fire up your wit and caption the (mostly) graduation-themed photos below from staff and volunteers!

How it works

Visit each individual photo linked below to leave a caption in a comment. Click on the photo to open its own stash page and leave your comment THERE, not here on this journal! Each caption is your entry to the contest. You may leave a caption on any or all of the photos - it's totally up to you.

The prizes

The best caption for each photo wins a one month Core membership

The deadline

7th August at 11:59 PM PT. (LA, California time). Any comments left after that time will not be considered